


I Don't Remember Names

by Ariel_Tempest



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Fluff, From The Mouths Of Babes, Gen, Prequel, Sisters, Snakes, Wisdom of the Ages, You're Not Impressive, cheek, to the rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-13 03:27:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10505472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ariel_Tempest/pseuds/Ariel_Tempest
Summary: A day in the park takes an interesting turn when Matthew winds up rescuing a damsel in distress from the most tyrannical of villains: her little brother.





	

_1900_

Matthew Crawley stood in the shade listening to the sound of the River Goyt flowing past on the other side of the trees. It was a pleasant day, sunny with just enough breeze to stave off the heat and allow for kite flying in the right areas. Some might have objected to the less than distant sounds of industry coming from the cotton mills and hatteries of Stockport, but hailing from Machester, Matthew was well used to them and they faded into a familiar, easily ignored background noise.

At age fifteen, Matthew had never been to Stockport before. He had come with his father, who was there on business and to visit an old friend from medical school who had recently moved into the area. Rather than sit through the business conversation, which he would have undoubtedly found tedious since he'd not inherited his father's interest in medicine, it had been suggested that Matthew visit the park in the north-eastern part of town. He had taken the suggestion, only getting lost a time or two in the unfamiliar streets. Now he checked his watch and noted that he'd spent a good hour wandering the well maintained paths and exploring the Stockport Museum, which stood within the park's boundaries. 

Since he wasn't due to meet his father for another hour and a half yet, Matthew turned his footsteps along the top edge of the river bank. The park was large enough that he could easily keep himself occupied, but he wasn't certain he just wanted to spend the entire time looking at grass and trees. He was contemplating going back to the museum, or the aviary, or possibly wandering through the rose garden again, when a sharp, feminine scream caught his attention. 

At first he couldn't see the source of the scream. He was looking around, trying to determine what the danger was and which direction it might be coming from when a girl, roughly his age, came barreling around a tall, well manicured hedge row. She was obviously running quite hard, her skirts hiked up as far as decency would allow, but the turn caused her to slow. She caught sight of him and, with a quick backward glance, she hurried forward again. "Help me!" she pleaded, "Oh, please help!"

"What's wrong, miss?" Matthew asked, automatically stepping forward. He might be the middle class son of a doctor, but his parents had taken great care to teach him good manners, and while he wasn't a hero, he couldn't ignore a member of the gentler sex in danger.

"He's got a snake, he has!" she explained hastily, hurrying to put Matthew between herself and her as yet unseen assailant. 

"A snake?" Matthew asked, confused, turning to look over his shoulder at her. Somehow from her screaming he'd expected something a bit more dire. 

"Yes, a -" she started, looking back the way she'd come. She stopped mid sentence and emitted another shriek, this one unfortunately close to Matthew's ear. He winced.

"Oi, what's this then?" a new voice protested from the direction the girl had come. It was young, male, and decidedly offended. Turning back around Matthew found himself looking at a boy a bit younger than himself, although how much younger was hard to say. It couldn't have been more than five years at the most. He was dressed for a day at the park, as was to be expected, and he was, indeed, holding a live snake firmly by the neck. "No fair, hiding behind a stranger!"

"I'll hide behind whomever I like," the girl retorted, clinging to Matthew's shoulders from behind. "You keep that thing away from me!"

The boy grinned. Given that they both had dark hair, although his was barely visible under his cap, and pale eyes, Matthew guessed they were related somehow. "What? This little thing?" he asked, taking a step closer and holding out the snake. Matthew didn't know that he'd call it 'little'. It looked to be over a foot long, although it was hard to tell, giving the way it kept wriggling.

Despite the fact there was still at least five feet between them, the girl screamed in Matthew's ear again and, suddenly releasing his shoulders, took off up the river. Apparently she'd decided he wasn't good enough protection against the fearsome serpent. The boy looked ready to run after her, but Matthew stepped into his path.

"Now hold on, here," Matthew frowned as the boy came to a stop again, looking rather surprised. "What do you think you're doing, scaring a girl like that?"

"She's not a girl," the boy frowned back at him. "She's my sister, that's different. And I'm chasing her with a snake, that's what I'm doing."

"I can't believe you'd even pick that thing up," Matthew replied, eyeing the snake warily. The boy seemed to have a firm handle on it, but he could still imagine what would happen if it got it's head loose. "It could bite you, you know."

His sister apparently forgotten in favor of this stranger, the boy eyed Matthew as if he might not be quite right in the head. "And? It's a grass snake, not an adder. Not even a really big grass snake either. Worst it would do is hurt, and even then not that much."

"You've been bitten before?"

"Sure," the boy shrugged. "Once or twice when I was younger. Before I quite figured out how to catch them proper."

Matthew had to admit, the way the boy was holding the snake, it didn't look like it would be able to bite readily. One of the boy's hands was closed just behind the reptile's head, right behind the pale band circling it's neck. The long body was left dangling. It probably wasn't hurting at all, but it didn't look comfortable. He still couldn't fathom wanting to hold the animal. "But why catch them in the first place?"

"So I can chase my sister with them," the boy explained again, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Apparently the dangling weight was getting hard to hold or something, because he gripped about half way down the snake's body with his other hand and held it with it's weight more evenly distributed.

"You really shouldn't do that," Matthew scolded, folding his arms over his chest. He wasn't the most intimidating person in the world, he knew, and he wasn't that much taller than the other boy, but he figured it would give him a certain sense of authority. 

Apparently he figured wrong. "Why not?" the boy retorted with a cheeky snort. "Don't you chase your sisters?"

"I don't have any sisters."

"Oh, well then, what do you know about it?" Laughing, the boy held the snake out toward him. Matthew took a bit of a step back, much to the delight of the younger boy, who took a full step forward. "What, don't you want to hold it? Do toffs just not have anything to do with snake catching, then?"

"I'm not a toff, so I wouldn't know," Matthew replied, eyes dancing between the snake and it's merrily grinning handler. 

The boy scoffed. "You are so a toff. I can tell by the way you talk, all la-di-da. Your dad's probably an Earl or Count or something fancy like that."

"My father's a doctor," Matthew replied, his tone going flat. He was honestly getting a bit tired of the boy's lack of respect. At the mention of his father, though, he thought he'd better check the time. There was no possible way he'd been standing around talking about snakes and sisters for an hour and a half, but his instinct was to pull out his watch and look at it anyway.

"Well if that's not keeping good time, you could take it to my dad," the boy noted, jerking his head at the pocket watch since his hands were a bit full. "He's a clock maker. Bet you still think your dad's better, though."

The challenge in the words got on Matthew's last nerve. "Yes, well, why don't you tell me where I can find him so I can tell him that his son is being cheeky to strangers?"

The boy's expression changed so fast that Matthew blinked in surprise. The cheeky grin melted away, his nostrils flared, and his eyes widened briefly before his entire expression shuttered off into a closed, unreadable mask. There was no mistaking the cord of hostility that entered his voice, though. "I don't hear you giving your name, Mister Fancy Manners."

Matthew took an involuntary step backward, half expecting the snake to be thrown at him. The boy seemed older, somehow, without the smile and bravado, even though he still couldn't have been as old as Matthew. He also seemed more dangerous, somehow. Still, he had a point. Cautious now, Matthew replied, "My name is Matthew Crawley. And you are?"

The boy opened his mouth to reply, but his attention jerked off to the right as a woman's voice ran out through the park. "Thomas! Thomas, where are you? It's time to go."

"Coming Aunt Maggie," the boy, Thomas, called back at the top of his lungs. He bent quickly, releasing the snake into the grass. Matthew half expected it to curl and strike, but instead it slid off through the green blades faster than he would have thought possible, apparently keen to make good on its freedom. "She'd better not have snitched on me," Thomas muttered as he straightened. 

He probably hadn't meant for Matthew to hear, but the older boy wanted to feel like he'd accomplished some sort of disciplinary measure, so he asked, "Or what?"

Thomas gave him a sideways look and shrugged. "Or I'll put a dead spider in her bed or something."

"Why would you do such a thing?" Matthew demanded, completely gobsmacked by the other boy's deliberate nastiness.

Thomas schooled his face into a very sweet smile and explained, slowly, enunciating each word as if to be certain Matthew caught them all, "Because, she's my sister. That's what sisters are for." With a derisive snort he added, "Really, don't you know anything important?"

"I know you won't get far in life with that attitude."

That made Thomas laugh. "Oh yeah? I bet when I grow up I live in at least as nice a house as you do, Mister Crawley." He flung the name at Matthew like an insult. His aunt's voice rang through the park again and, with a mocking bow, he turned and tore off through the grass, pausing just long enough to take a running jump and try to grab a low hanging tree branch. He missed by a mile.

Matthew shook his head as he watched the younger boy depart. "I somehow doubt that."

**Author's Note:**

> It is worth noting that I've never been off the North American continent, so while I have done research, my knowledge of Stockport, Machester, Greater Manchester, etc. is limited to what the Internet tells me. Apologies if anything is off.
> 
> I can never satisfactorily give Thomas an age in my head, so I tend to go with 'somewhere between Mary and Matthew' and where, exactly, shifts with need. Here ten made the most sense for the narrative, although I suppose he could be closer to twelve.
> 
> The park they are in is Vernon Park, Stockport. It's also been called People's Park and Pinch Belly Park. I couldn't for the life of me figure out which name it would have gone by in 1900, so I didn't name it.


End file.
